The "tyranny of the future" is vividly embodied in a key term for economists: Investment! Consider also that for workers (even high-paid workers) "savings" are only postponed consumption. It is only a bit extravagant to say that a worker's whole life, his/her every action, is dominated by the needs of that worker after retirement. The core of the current "Austerity" drive (an extension of an attack on workers' conditions of lie that began in the mid-70s) seems precisely aimed at intensifying that threat. Or let's take an example that should make every Ph.D. holder tremble in his/her memory. From the moment you entered grad school, there was never a second of any day in which it would not have been possible to read something that would be useful in the looming preliminary exams. And when you passed those exams, not a second that could not be spent in doing _something_ towards your dissertation. And when you finished that and got your first tenure-track job, not a second that could not be spent on that first article or book or on the next semester's course or.... This tyranny of the future exists to some extent from the neolithic revolution on. (Who digs up dirt to plant barley for the fun of it?)
^^^^^^ CB: Concern for future generations is central in the origin of the human species. Culture, custom, tradition , planning the lives of yet unborn descendents, passing on to them messages about the experiences of ancestors is critical in defining the human species, and creating its extraordinary success. It made possible the original affluence of the original humans for tens of thousands of years. The concept of the unity of past and future human life is of the human essence and human nature. It is what freed the human species from the tyranny of ignorance that all prior animal species lived in. ^^^^^^^ But it is only under capitalism that it becomes all-powerful. Those chains of the future are the chains referred to in the slogan, "You have nothing to lose but your chains." I think that if you explored your suggested definition you would find that it presupposes the definition I have offered. How free are your choices during a summer if you must teach a new course in the fall? Every minute you spend loafing and inviting your soul that first day of classes lurks in your thought. When Marx calls for abolition of the Wages System, he calls for the throwing of these chains which make the worker's "leisure time" such a mockery. Carrol _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
